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MINDEN – Financial problems plaguing two fire districts in 2012 caused the Webster Parish Police Jury to create a new law requiring annual reports from those boards and commissions under its control.

For the most part, the majority are complying. But because some have not, the Police Jury this week amended the ordinance to include the issuance of a letter to all of the entities with detailed information on what is requested of them.

The letters will be mailed by the Police Jury by Nov. 1, with a deadline of Feb. 1 of the following year to comply.

“Ninety percent are doing right but we have a few bad apples,” Bossier-Webster Assistant District Attorney Patrick Jackson said. “We will follow up to make sure they are doing it.”

Police Juror Daniel Thomas, who heads the Intergovernmental Committee, said the Police Jury is not asking any more of the boards than is already required by state law. He acknowledges the boards, ranging from fire to water to recreation, are run by citizens who don’t get paid.

“There are a lot of hard-working people out there who do this work for us, because we can’t do it all. We do appreciate what they do for us,” Thomas said. “This is just going to help them stay in compliance.”

The parish law states appointed representatives of the Police Jury are obligated to affirm their attendance at an annual audit review, ensure every vote and expenditure is reviewed and approved, conduct periodic inspections of books and records, hold meetings at least quarterly with written minutes, published agendas and recordings, verify the person in charge of accounting and spending money is trained on statutory guidelines, submit board appointments to the Police Jury for approval and maintain a current list of members, titles and terms of office and file an annual report with the Police Jury.

Each board also should make sure all members undergo ethics training. “That’s a state law,” Thomas said.

The biggest complaint coming from board members is a lack of knowledge of their responsibilities when appointments are made. “Some feel they are thrown into it without any training or rules. … This is to be a help to them and remind them by taking this appointment it requires you to do these things,” Jackson said.